The Knit Hedgehog

My dad takes in foster children. For several months now, he has been taking care of a little baby girl named Victoria. She's adorable! Since it looks like she'll be staying for a while, I ended up making her a Christmas present.

I really enjoyed this pattern. Its very simple, very soft, and very fun. It took about a day and a half to complete, so it was perfect for a last minute gift. 

A great gift for a one-year-old, I used some stashed acrylic and stuffed it with polyfil. Completely machine washable. 

Now I want one for myself!

Hallowe'en 2013

Hallowe'en went really well this year! I hosted a small house party, got to decorate and dress up. Overall, a fun time.

I had both a food table and a bar set up. The above picture doesn't contain all the food, but there was a cheeseball, apple slices, pumpkin dip, caramel dip, candy; not pictured are the gluten-free cake balls and the buffalo chicken dip. We ate a lot of crackers and chips.

I used felt I got on sale at Michael's to make the bat decor. I used a template, printed, pinned, and cut. Scotch tape on the back held them to the wall. However, beware: the cat decided to pull them down at all costs.   

One of my guests has a gluten intolerance.



Gluten Free Cake Balls
1 box Gluten Free Cake Mix
8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
1 bag Wilton Candy Melts
50 Cake Pop Sticks

Bake cake mix to the directions on the box, let cool. Crumble cooled cake into a large mixing bowl and stir in softened cream cheese until the cream cheese has been absorbed. Shape into balls.

Melt candy melts as per directions. Drop prepared cake balls, one by one, into the melts, coat. Remove and place on wax paper. Insert cake pop sticks halfway into balls, allow to cool.

The bar was a lot of fun to set up as well. It was a good way to get rid of a lot of extra alcohol we had but didn't enjoy. Unfortunately, we didn't get rid of it all.

The pumpkin jars are empty spaghetti jars, painted orange on the inside, with Sharpie faces. The skull in the foreground was purchased at Michael's for $1, and painted. You can even see Cthulhu!

Happy Hallowe'en!

The One Ring Scarf

One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All, and In the Darkness Bind Them

The One Ring Scarf is double-knit on 4mm needles with Caron Simply Soft yarn, 2 skeins Black and 2 skeins Autumn Red. Total yarn cost was about $12. It took 2 months to complete. It's about 8 feet long from end-to-end. It's incredibly warm. I made it for the biggest LOTR nerd I know, my boyfriend. Now I can steal the Ravenclaw scarf I made for him....

I pushed really hard to finish this in time for Georgia to get its first snowfall in three years. I finished the last phrase in 2 days. I wanted it to be useful before Georgia's notoriously short winter came to an end.

I highly suggest using an acrylic for this. I could not have afforded to use a nice yarn, as the pattern used about 1200 yards. Not to mention, Caron Simply Soft is really warm, pretty sturdy, and drapes nicely. It's machine washable, I didn't worry about it getting wet in the snow. I'm very happy with the yarn choice.

Everyone I talk to thinks I should make it an infinity scarf, but honestly, it is way too heavy and way too long to be useful as a ring. Perhaps if you used a sport or finger weight yarn, but at worsted, its just too big.

So prepared!

It really covers the face well, though. It's very wide. It gets good coverage from nose to neck, and ass someone whose chin freezes easily, this is a great thing.

The Deathflake Chart

The Deathflake Chart is something I'd been wanting to try out for a long time, but Faire Isle really scared me. A very well written a versatile chart, I initially intended to make a table runner. My boyfriend thought a banner would be more presentable. 

I have to say, I'm impressed with myself. The tension turned out the best of any Faire Isle I have attempted previously.

I learned how to properly block acrylic, as well. And by that I mean, I put a towel over it and steamed the shit out of it until it lay flat. It drapes fairly well now.

.